


Last Rites

by Selah



Series: Shinjitsu to Gensou [56]
Category: Jrock, Malice Mizer
Genre: Gen, M/M, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-10 11:22:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11126040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selah/pseuds/Selah
Summary: Some things cannot be avoided or changed, not even by the Crown Prince of the Infinite Heavens. That did not make facing them any easier.





	Last Rites

**Author's Note:**

> timestamp: July 3rd, 1999
> 
> In Japanese folklore, the ghost of a person cannot move on until the body is completely destroyed, hence the common practice of cremation. All souls are then judged by the god Enma (Enmadaioh) before being moved along to the next part of the cycle.
> 
> Written as a fill for the June challenge at vkyaoi@dreamwidth

A week. More than that, more like two. Gackt silently fumed, forcing himself to present a calm, almost impassive face for the rest of the day. Twelve days since he had felt that burning pain in his chest, at once familiar and alien. More than a week since the funeral. And yet only now did someone bother to track him down, to find him and tell him what, in his heart, he had already known. Ukiyo Kamimura, one of his dearest friends, was dead. And he had let it happen.

“You pathetic asshole.”

Gackt set the incense sticks in their sand holder and sat back on his heels before the small household shrine, pressing his palms together as he closed his eyes.

“Oh no, you don't get to pretend like you're just like everybody else, just another human. Not anymore, not with me.”

His lips twitched and he gave up, glancing up at the ghost of his friend. At his urging, You and Ren had gone out for the evening, leaving Gackt alone in the house they shared. Well, almost alone.

“You let me die.”

“Yes,” Gackt said quietly, bowing to the shrine before getting up to his feet. Not even for a prince could there be an excuse for improper manners.

“You knew I was going to die and you let it happen.”

“No. And yes,” he sighed, pouring out a glass of wine before moving to his couch. Kami's ghost followed him, looking just as he remembered him from the last time they had been together. It was hard to see him especially with those accusations so clear in the dead man's eyes.

“You can't have it both ways, Gakkun. Or am I supposed to call you Kamui-sama now?”

“For you, old friend, I would even answer to 'fucking bastard',” Gackt said, a ghost of a smile curving his lips. The joke did not go over as well as he could have hoped.

“No, apparently that was me,” Kami's spirit said with a snort. That was enough to pull a full-throated laugh from Gackt and though he knew his friend's spirit was trying to stay angry, he could see Kami's resolve weakening.

“Oh Kami...,” Gackt sighed, setting down his wine and then getting up to cup Kami's face in his hands. Divine magic flowed through his skin and he pressed a kiss to lips that both were and weren't entirely there. “I am sorry, my love. I knew the weakness was in you, yes, but the only way for me to have known when it would kill you would have been to do the one thing I refused to do. Perhaps I should have, especially after hide-kun's death, but....”

“You could have healed me,” the ghost countered, but even his petulance was fading in light of the genuine love glowing and flowing through Gackt's touch.

“In theory, perhaps, but... There are limits, even on the Heir of Heaven,” he said with a slow shake of his head. “Healing you would have been inviting even worse on your head if your fate had indeed already been set. At least this way you passed in peace?”

“At twenty-seven!” Kami protested, trying to step away from Gackt's touch. “My life was barely begun! And you! You weren't even there!”

“I know,” he said, letting his hands fall to his sides.

“Four days! Four days I was trapped in that place, Gakkun! Four days of hell!”

“I know,” he repeated. “Symmetry, I suppose.”

“What? What are you talking about now, you asshole?!”

“Is that really why you came to me, my love? Anger at four days trapped with your own body? I didn't ask Enmadaioh for you to be allowed to return to me like this. Have you even faced him yet? No, I suppose not, or else you wouldn't be here, would you? But you cannot remain here, my love. And I cannot allow it.”

“Allow? ALLOW?!”

It wasn't as if the rage was unexpected - anger was a strong tether to the mortal plane, one of the few things that could keep a soul from passing normally on to the realms of the dead. He was almost impressed that Kami's spirit had been able to evade the shinigami for so long, but as the Crown Prince of the Infinite Heavens, he had a responsibility to help his friend pass on into the next life.

“Ukiyo,” he said gently, the same as if he were speaking to a child. He could taste the spirit's anger, the heat of it filling the air of the room, but Gackt was having a hard time tracing it back to a solid source. After nearly two weeks, the anger that animated Kami's spirit was threatening to overwhelm and consume him. Gackt was swiftly running out of time.

“Betrayer! This is your fault! How dare you let me die!”

Kami's temper flared into a bloody aura, a halo of rage and spite and fear. It was enough. A deep breath and Gackt let his true form emerge, though he was careful to keep himself small for the sake of not damaging the house. Still, there was enough of him to wind about Kami's spirit form twice as he floated in the air, forelimbs landing on Kami's shoulders even as his head nuzzled his beloved's hair. The appearance of his dragon form was enough to shock Kami's spirit back to sanity, but he stayed as he was for several more minutes before taking a more human form once more. The white angelic wings he wore were an affectation borrowed from his half brother, but they were effective. With arms and wings both, he cradled Kami's spirit form to his own, using his divine powers to give his lover a few last moments of solidity in the human realm.

“I will take you to the next realm myself, my love. You have nothing to fear. Your heart is pure and strong, now is the time for your just reward.”

“I don't want a reward,” Kami protested, shaking his head. “I want you. Gakkun....”

“In another life, perhaps, my love, but this one ... this one is ended. We must let it go,” he whispered.

“Gakkun....”

Gackt pulled back just enough to cup Kami's face in his hands again, pressing a brief kiss to his lips.

“I will never forget you, love. And I will always cherish the time we shared. You have my word. You will not be forgotten.”

“I don't want to go,” the spirit repeated, shaking his head again. “I'm not ready. I don't ... I can't ... can't you do something?”

“I already have, love.”

_::Welcome home, little butterfly.::_


End file.
